Health care providers knowledge, attitude and practice of smoking cessation interventions in public health facilities in Kiambu county, Kenya
Abstract
Healthcare providers can play a major role in promoting smoking cessation by providing either
behavioral and/or pharmacological smoking cessation interventions to their patients. Such
smoking cessation interventions have been shown to be effective in increasing the quit rate in
patients who smoke. The knowledge and attitudes of healthcare providers towards provision of
smoking cessation interventions can however determine if smoking patients receive these
interventions.
Objective
The aim of this study was to determine healthcare providers’ level of knowledge, attitude and
practice of smoking cessation interventions.
Methodology
This was a cross- sectional study carried out among healthcare providers working in public
health facilities in Kiambu County. Four hundred participants were selected to participate in
the study from five health professional groups: nurses, medical officers, dentists, clinical
officers and community oral health officers. A two-stage stratified sampling technique was
employed to select participants. Selection of health facilities formed the first stage while
selection of health care providers formed the second stage. Self administered questionnaires
were then distributed to the selected participants. Descriptive statistics was used to report
frequency distribution of study variables. Chi-square tests and odds ratio were used to assess
socio-demographic differences in the knowledge, attitude and practice of health care providers.
Results
A total of 338 participants completed the questionnaire. Half of the participants attained an
average knowledge score, 41% of the participants attained poor knowledge scores, while 8%
attained good knowledge scores. Most of the respondents (89%) had not received formal
training on smoking cessation interventions. Majority of the participants (85%) had a positive
attitude towards provision of smoking cessation interventions however, non-smokers had
significantly more positive attitudes towards provision of smoking cessation interventions than
current smokers. Overall, less than half of the health care providers reported that they always
provided smoking cessation interventions to their patients. More health care providers reported
that they always asked (35%) and advised (44%) smokers to quit as compared to those that
always assessed willingness to quit (16%), assisted patients set a quit date (10%) or arranged
follow up of patients after quitting (12%). Insufficient training, lack of smoking cessation
treatment guidelines and insufficient knowledge were rated by most health care providers as
important barriers to the provision of smoking cessation interventions.
Conclusion
Health care providers have inadequate knowledge on smoking cessation interventions. Most
health care providers surveyed had a positive attitude towards provision of smoking cessation
interventions. There was sub-optimal self reported practice of smoking cessation interventions
by the health care providers surveyed.
Recommendation
There is need to improve health care providers’ knowledge, confidence and practice levels on
smoking cessation interventions through development and implementation of a pre-service and
in-service standard curriculum for training healthcare providers on smoking cessation
interventions. National guidelines for screening, documentation and treatment of tobacco
dependence also need to be developed and implemented.
Citation
Master Of Public HealthPublisher
University of Nairobi